2012-05-29

I have been having this issue for years and I found the final solution just yesterday! So I thought I would post it here and hopefully help out thousands of other people like me.

Before I explain the solution let me describe the problem in detail. For some unknown reason, I have always had this problem on my main computer with Internet Explorer 9: whenever I want to run it, a blank window appears for 0.1 second then closes instantly, without any error message or anything. The solutions I describe are valid for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). I am running Windows 7 but the solutions also work for Windows Vista and Windows XP.

There are three solutions here, among which two are the official solutions proposed by Microsoft. Let me tell you right off - Microsoft's solutions had no effect, so you might want to skip to the last one immediately.

Solution 1: deleting all IE settings so as to remove potentially blocking add-ons

So the first solution is to reset Internet Explorer to its default settings. After all, the problem you are having might be caused by an add-on that causes IE to crash or something. In order to proceed, either click the above link to download a tool that will clean up your IE settinsg, OR run the tool from your machine (yeah, the tool should already be installed on your machine):
1) Open the Internet Options applet from the control panel
2) Go to the Advanced tab
3) Click the "Reset Settings" button
4) Make sure the "Delete personal settings" box is ticked and press OK.
5) Try running IE again and see if that fixed it.

Solution 2 (by Microsoft)

If that didn't help, you can try their second recommendation, which is basically to uninstall and reinstall Internet Explorer. The process is simple and there is actually no installer to run.
Uninstalling:
1) Open the Programs and Features applet from the control panel (Add/Remove programs in XP)
2) Click the "Turn Windows Features on or off" link on the left
3) Untick Internet Explorer in the list of programs that shows up
4) Restart your computer
Reinstalling: do the exact same, except you tick the box.
If you have an older version of Internet Explorer, I recommend downloading Internet Explorer 9 (offline installer, not one of those stupid web installers that always fail).

Once you have that downloaded, extract the ZIP archive, you will find a .cmd file (command-line batch file). It contains instructions that will repair your system and allow Internet Explorer to finally work again. DISREGARD the filename: it's called "IE8" but it works with IE7, IE8 and IE9. To run it, right-click the file and click "Run as administrator".

After it finishes running, start Internet Explorer and voila! You can now use the world's worst web browser again. Download Google Chrome now!

I can`t believe this worked! I tried everything and I believe my issue was because I have a sata drive and another drive separating ie and the OS. Anyway... I didn`t believe this would work, yet it did. Thanks a lot!

Still nothing worked for me. I have to get IE working. I need some paperwork from a court house and all they use is IE. Once I get all that done I am going back to Chrome. I have been working on this for months.

Option 3 worked after I had an exhausting 3 day research into this issue. The only thing I can advise the author is to include more keywords in the title (like IE opens and carashed, instead of just IE opens and closes, etc. so other people can find the solution faster :)

Thanks for finding this automated script that re-registers .dll files etc. to return IE to its original functionality - very much appreciated!!!

I have a 32-bit xp machine and had tried almost everything before this with no success. Trying to uninstall ie8, couldn't; trying to uninstall sp3, couldn't; registry changes; no-add-in start up; safe mode; etc. This fixed everything in 1 minute. THANKS, Fantastic!!!

Grr... none of this worked for me. Even option 3, and I tried all 3 downloads. I have Win7 64 and IE9 32. I don't know why that is, but I disabled IE a LONG time ago, now that I need it even when I enable it it just opens for a second and closes. I think it may be time to reinstall my Win7.

I'm not a computer wizard. How do you download something when your internet won't open??? I'm using my wife's computer to search for solutions. I hit the reset button on my internet trying to fix some things (as told) and now when i try to open it, it opens as you say, for a second and then gone.

"So every time I click one of your links, it takes me to some movie downloader. Wtf?" => Hello, you must be clicking an ad banner instead of the actual download button. Those ads can be sneaky.

"I'm not a computer wizard. How do you download something when your internet won't open???" => use someone else's computer to download the fix, copy it onto a USB drive and run it on your computer. It doesn't take a computer wizard ... :-)

AWESOME! I had tried everything or 2 days. MS fixes didn't work, but fix 3 did it. I can not thank you enough. I am so glad I found your article. I will be keeping track of your page for sure from now on.

I tried all 3 and I must be missing something with #3. I didn't get a file in Winzip, I got the iLivid Download, and the download failed from there. Did you leave some details out about how to actually download the script? Everything I click on leads to iLivid and nothing else! Help!

Clem, I know what the Download button looks like, and when I click on it I get iLivid. When I click on your link that says 'click here' it goes to iLivid. Everything that should take me to your script download takes me to iLivid download. Why is that?

I was having a real issue trying to restore internet explorer and I was nearing the end of my rope when I found this site. I was able to folow the instructions and solve the problem. Thank you so much. You have been extremely helpful.

Didn't work for me - but I suspect that my problem is caused by an MS update. what can you do about that?I've tried uninstalling the update, but it gives an error message saying it can't uninstall some parts.Any suggestions?thanks

I have WinXP (32 bits) and none of the three solutions worked separately. Then I did a combination starting with solution #3 and then disabling IExplorer as in solution #2. Finally, after restarting the computer I did a fresh installation of IExplorer 8 from an installer downloaded from Microsoft using a second computer and a USB stick (because the first computer had no browser yet).This combination did the trick. Thank you Clement!

I have WinXP (32 bits) and none of the three solutions worked separately. Then I did a combination starting with solution #3 and then disabling IExplorer as in solution #2. Finally, after restarting the computer I did a fresh installation of IExplorer 8 from an installer downloaded from Microsoft using a second computer and a USB stick (because the first computer had no browser yet).This combination did the trick. Thank you Clement!

Options 1 & 2 never worked, so I've tried option 3. After trying all three scripts, my inernet explorer still doesn't work. I made sure I ran the .cmd files properly for each one and waited for the script to finish and 'press any key to continue', and still my internet explorer doesn't work.

I went straight to step 3 to try the IE fix script first. I had some difficulty, as WinZip sux, never made sense to me, also instructions didn't account for the fact that you have to perform the download on another computer first to a portable media and upload to trouble computer, and the computer I was trying to fix was all in Russian (Cyrillic). I did the download to a CD, loaded it to the troubled computer, never had to perform an Extraction as the instructions indicate (just double-clicked the uploaded file), and it did not fix the issue. Then I went to step 1 and performed an IE Reset which appears to have fixed the issue. So maybe both the Reset and Script need to be performed to fix the issue? Or at least in some cases? Either way, your IE instructions got me the desired result. Thank you.

Thanks for this info. None of these appeared to work, but discovered what might have caused the problem. Apparently, IE was waiting for SuperAntiSpyware, which was waiting for Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) (which was set to delayed auto start under Services). After about 7 minutes, Intel RST started, SuperAntiSpyware started, and IE started.

Option 3 worked like a charm. Took me a while to pick out the actual download vs. the ad banners, and I had to choose the manual download vs. the automatic one, but once I ran the actual script, I was back in business.

Thank you option 3 worked instantly and I am not a computer whiz...to those who asked how do you download the file if you cannot open internet explorer is that you have to download it on another computer using a flash drive. Obviously you are on another computer if you are seeing this. Instead of running the file, click save and save it to your flash drive. Then all you have to do is click on it on your flash drive when you plug it into the non working computer and voila...Thank you again....I hope some really good things happen to you!!

Ran full antivirus scan. Ran rootkit scan. All OK. In desperation I decided to try "the script."

Trying to download the script I got to a screen that forced me to accept a download for ilivid (?) or reboot. I rebooted - with only the usual windows startup stuff. Windows took a long, long time to start. So I ran chkdsk - it found a trashed filesystem - which I had it fix. Then windows ran, but IE still didn't run. I figured out a way around the "download my crapware or else" screen, downloaded the file, ran the script. IE still wouldn't work. Reboot - and all hell broke loose. Tried to use windows repair - it hung. Tried to reinstall windows from image - it hung. Finally used LINUX to repartition the drive. Then I was able to reinstall Windows. My advice: learn to live without IE, or find another fix. A friend gave ma a list of reg fixes - he said works. In all, only reformat and reinstall windows worked. Other than those problems, I had a good morning. My advice: try anything but this script.

To the anonymous person who recommends not using the script: sorry about that, but you must have clicked an advert instead of the actual download link. Ads can be misleading, some companies (such as ilivid) trick people into clicking their banners instead of the real download buttons.

#1-Microsoft solution worked for me. It speeded up my internet, cleaned some stuff & blocks ads that used to come up. I tried the 3rd solution first, but I lost my key code & can't use the download app without the key so the link scanned my entire system, found 966 "problems" but could not clean them without the key. Had to "UNinstall" the software that scanned my computer to get the app window to go away. Whew.

I can`t believe this worked! I tried everything and I believe my issue was because I have a sata drive and another drive separating ie and the OS. Anyway... I didn`t believe this would work, yet it did. Thanks a lot!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!I have been trying to fix the IE on Win7 and nothing worked so far.None of Microsoft suggestions worked for me.Only running the script "ie8-rereg.32on64.cmd" file woked for me!Amazing!

I downloaded it, got after a couple tries I found the right button...little blind. But once I actually got it and started it up, it downloaded to about 95% and then it started installing a bunch of viruses! WTF?

if you still face internet explorer related problems like internet explorer not working or other computer related problems just dial IE help number and get complete technical help and support: 1-855-212-2247 (toll free) number.

I believe this is the easiet way - if IE is 64-bits, it will be listed in Start>Programs more or less like this: "Internet Explorer (64 bits)"If it's 32-bits, it will be just: "Internet Explorer".You can also open Windows Explorer and navigate to the IE folder. It might be on Program Files or Program Files (x86). Right click "iexplore.exe", then check properties>Details>File version.I use the PT-BR version of Windows, so I don't know for sure the name of the commands. Hope you can figure it out.

I tried these and other methods without more than temporary success (worked once, then went back to flashing up and going away). Finally decided to test another Windows profile, which worked normally. Resolved by deleting the Windows profile and rebuilding it.

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That's really interesting. I wonder why it isn't working. I had a similar problem with my computer. I ended up having to take it to a computer repair shop. They told me that it was something I wouldn't have been able to fix by myself. You may be in the same boat I was in. I would suggest taking it in to get it professionally fixed. http://Jerryscomputerrepair.com

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